The Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world, located in South America across Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. It covers an area of 105,000 square kilometers and receives on average less than 15mm of rainfall per year. Some parts have never received rain. The terrain is made up of stony ground, salt lakes, sand, and felsic lava. Despite the extreme aridity, some 500 species of plants have adapted to the harsh environment, only flowering after rare rainfall. Limited fauna like grasshoppers, wasps, butterflies, lizards, and scorpions can survive in the Atacama. Mining, especially of copper, has provided wealth to human settlements

1. Atacama Desert
By: Undariya Rinchin

2. Basic Info
• Driest Desert in the world
• Plateau in South America
• Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina
• Covers 105,000km^2
• AKA “Desierto de Atacama”

3. Made up of
• Stony terrain
• Salt lakes
• Sand
• Felsic Lava

4. Rainfall
• Average 15mm rain/per year
• Some parts never received rain
• Goes without raining for 4 years
• May be oldest desert

5. Hyper aridity
• Extreme hyper aridity for 3 million years
• May be oldest desert
• Glacier free mountains (600m)
• Chile hyper aridity
- past 200 million years

6. Climate
• Dry
• Antiplano winter
- January to Febuary
- Rain, Thunderstorms
• Extreme Antarctic Cold front
- July 2011
- 80 cm of snow
- antiplano winter

7. mars
• Soil compared to mars
• Used for filming mars scenes
• Used by NASA to test Mars missions
• Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets

9. Valle de la luna
• Valley of the Moon
• Looks like the surface of the moon
• 13 km to the west of the town of San Pedro de
Atacama

11. Solar car racing
• 18 solar powered cars displayed
• Front of presidential palace
• Raced 1300 km through Atacama

12. Tourism
• Tourists stay in San Pedro de Atacama
• Top three tourist locations in Chile
• ESO hotel reserved for astronomers

13. Sports
• Popular with all-terrain sports
• Mostly races
• Lower Atacama Rally
• Lower Chile Ralley
• Patagonia- Atacama Rally
• Dakar Rally
-Held in 2009-2012

14. Flora
• Flora grew despites arid climate
• 500 species have gathered
• Adapted to extreme environment
• Herbs
• Flowers- thyme, llareta, saltglass
• Llareta- highest growing food species in the
world
• Flowers bloom after rainfall

16. Fauna
• Limits number of animals
• Permanently extreme ecosystem
• No plants or animals at some parts
• Sand colored grass hoppers
• Wasps and butterflies found during humid times
• Some lizards and scorpions survive in Atacama

18. Human settelment
• Populated at towns near the Pacific coast
• Some valleys populated
• Conflicts over water resources

19. Mining
• Copper mining since 1950
• Provided wealth
• Rich deposits of copper